Books & Literature

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews some new summer reads. Below is a list of her favorites:

If you know him by his full name, you probably watch Six Feet Under on HBO, of which he's co-executive producer. If you know him by his initials, B.E.K., you probably read The New Yorker, where his single-panel cartoons are regularly featured. A new collection of his cartoons, This is a Bad Time, has just been published by Simon and Schuster.

Sedaris is the author of the bestselling collections Barrel Fever, Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. His new collection is Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Sedaris essays appear regularly in Esquire, GQ and The New Yorker. His radio pieces can be heard on This American Life. In 2001 he became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Hendra was the editor in chief of Spy magazine and an original editor of National Lampoon. He also played Ian Faith in the mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. He has written an unlikely new memoir about his lifelong friendship with a Benedictine monk he was brought to when he was 14 years old, after getting caught in an affair with a married woman. Hendra writes in his new memoir Father Joe: "His was the wisdom I craved though it was never what I expected; his judgment alone I feared though never once did he pass judgment on me."

Seagle has written for Superman and Uncanny X-Men as well as House of Secrets: Foundation, a supernatural court drama comic. He's teamed up with artist Teddy Kristiansen for the new graphic novel, It's a Bird... In this semi-autographical book Seagle deconstructs the classic Superman myth and reflects on power and powerlessness.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett, a memoir about her friendship with the late Lucy Grealy, best known for her 1994 book Autobiography of a Face.

Donna Brazile managed the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. She's written a new memoir about her years in politics, Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics. Brazile is currently chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She is also a political commentator on CNN's Inside Politics.

Dellinger, a long-time peace activist, editor and author, died on Tuesday at the age of 88. Dellinger was jailed for civil disobedience a generation before Daniel and Philip Berrigan. He was part of the "Chicago Seven," the group of seven anti-war demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The convention erupted into violence between demonstrators and police. Dellinger was the author of several books, including an account of his spiritual journey From Yale to Jail. (Rebroadcast from April 9, 1993.)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Bone Woman, by forensic anthropologist Clea Koff.

Nunberg's new collection of commentary (originally written for broadcast and print) is Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times. Nunberg is senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University and consulting full professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He also writes for the Sunday New York Times Week in Review.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club.

Wilson is a former career diplomat, serving from 1976 to 1998. He had diplomatic posts throughout Africa and was ambassador to Gabon. Wilson was the acting ambassador to Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. President George W. Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union address, stated that "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." But in February 2002 Wilson investigated reports of Iraq's attempt to buy uranium from Niger, and found no evidence of such an attempt.

Her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a best seller in Britain, is a narrative history of punctuation. Truss claims that with the advent of e-mail and text messaging, proper punctuation is an endangered species. Truss is also the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas. She has been a television critic and sports columnist for The Times (London). She also won Columnist of the Year award for her work for Women's Journal. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London.

He died Monday at the age of 75. In 1964, his book Last Exit To Brooklyn, shocked readers with its salty language and explicit portrayal of prostitutes, thugs, ex-cons and striking dock workers along the Brooklyn waterfront in the 1950s. Selby's other books included The Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. (This interview was originally broadcast on May 4, 1990.)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new mystery novels: An Unpardonable Crime by Andrew Taylor, and A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin.

He is the author of the memoir, Blue Blood that begins with his first days on the street as a cop in the New York Police Department and goes back three generations. His great-grandfather was an "officer of dubious integrity" during the Tammany-era NYPD. Conlon also wrote the "Cop Diary" columns in The New Yorker and is a graduate of Harvard. One reviewer writes, "No one has written a book that grabs readers by the scruff of the neck and tells them what the life of a cop is really like as well as Edward Conlon."

Kyle Smith is book and music review editor at People Magazine. He's making his debut as a novelist with the new book Love Monkey. It's about a 32-year-old New Yorker who dares to be "average" and whose credo is to "think and act like a 13-year-old boy at all times." Smith is also a Yale graduate and a Gulf War veteran.

His new book Little Children is a satirical take on parenthood and suburbia. Perrotta is also the author of the novels Joe College and Election. Election was made into the 1999 movie of the same name.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists 1854-67, by Rachel Cohen. It's a book about friendships between American writers and artists and photographers.

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new updated versions of classic Nancy Drew novels.